As many of you know I was hardcore into this game for awhile and then lost interest when it was abandoned (with all the bugs and things). However something happened to me over my brief vacation that makes me take another look...

It may sound crazy, but last Saturday night was the first time I'd ever played any of the Halo series... (perhaps because I've always been more of a PC than console gamer, and thus tended to give FPS games on the console short shrift) my friend had the original on the PC, and playing through some multiplayer (CTF), I was having MAJOR flashbacks to this game.

Everything from the limitations on the flag carrier, to the basic fight physics, to the rifle butts, reloading, limited carrying capacity, grenade properties, etc, to the menus and text stylings... Republic Commando owes a ton to "Halo" at least where Multiplayer is concerned.

The games are nearly identical... though there are some subtle differences.

RC has regenerating shields, instead of a shield pickup... and the rifle butts do a lot more damage... such that instead of a last resort, they're a good strategy (get close, SMASH in the head with Ray's gun). In Halo's version of CTF, when you try to attack (other than melee, which CLUBS WITH THE FLAG) you automatically drop the flag. In RC, you can melee and use grenades, but for anything else you have to set it down (which automatically returns it, except in Assault, iirc).

Halo has some dune buggies and hovercraft, which RC lacks (and could have used). Halo's weapons are a little more generic too, and the graphics are a little older (though it appears Halo 2 and 3 are pretty much the same game with better graphics). The gravity seems a little weak in Halo, but oddly enough you still take damage from hopping off a mere 12 foot ladder.

So now I see the games in a whole new light... RC clearly owes a lot in terms of style and feel to Halo in MP. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I'm just amazed how much the two are similar. My main disappointment with RC was that it didn't use a lot of the features that UT2k4 had already, which really would have improved the experience (nevermind duplicating the great features of SP in the MP environment!). Heck UT2k4 even copied the Dune buggies (and hovercraft), but gave them better weapons!

So all you Halo fans who just can't get enough... this is basically the same game, but with a (gritty) Star Wars, Clone War era feel to it (though admittedly lacking drivable vehicles).

ive seen this similarity in not just Star Wars and Halo, but also StarCraft, Quake, Doom, Alien vs. Predator, Dead Space and WarHammer 40K. my obsession with these has gotten rather extreme; i combined Quake and Doom, took the Necromorphs from Dead Space and put them in Star Wars and made a 38 slide powerpoint with 18 factions: Grand Army of the Republic, United Nations Space Command, United Systems Colonial Marines, Terran Marine Corps, United Aerospace Armed Forces, Space Marine Chapters, Necromorphs, Flood, Xenomorphs, Zerg, Demons, Tyranids, Kaleesh, Covenant, Yautja, Protoss, Strogg and Tau. :S basically the obsession got to a point where i had two game ideas, one just an RTS, the other a Team-Based F/TPS with the same story; meddling with each universe's respective enigmatic race (Rakata, Forerunner, Mala'Kak, Xel'Naga, Praeleanthor, Sloadd) sends the 18 factions to a warped dimension where they are now fighting for their own survival and for the amusement of the enigmatics. its essentially Quake 3 with factions.